


Prompt #7

by GlitterBombLove



Series: Prompts - 30 Challenge [7]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Character Study, Flash Fic, Prompt Fic, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:09:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24708121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GlitterBombLove/pseuds/GlitterBombLove
Summary: Prompt #7June 13, 2020Genre: Contemporary Fiction / Young AdultPrompt: There's never been another human here.Source: Shauna's Best Writing Prompts / shaunaphilp.com on Pinterest
Series: Prompts - 30 Challenge [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1754020
Kudos: 2





	Prompt #7

When the flickering light on his headlamp struck the iridescent vein, his heart began to pound. Chilamba inhaled deeply and imagined himself oozing like liquid through the crack. 

Chilamba wiggled through the crevice to get closer to the treasure. He withdrew his small pick axe strapped to his chest and then began to delicately chip away at the rock wall. There was no telling how big the gem was but Chilamba was certain it would be enormous. The other workers claimed that Chilamba always found the biggest stone. You are a ghost cat hunting the mouse gem. They told him he was kissed by divine good luck. A load of rubbish, Chilamba would always answer.

There's never been another human here, Chilamba thought as he softly hammered and loosened the gem around the edges. My eyes are the first to see these places because I will go deeper and farther than anyone else. 

He was blessed with a perfect build for this kind of work. Claiming their bodies were similar, his lazy brother Kupela had announced he was tired of school and would join his older brother in the mines and begin to earn money. They both had skinny frames and pliant joints built to contort into impossibly tight cracks like a cat. The brothers eyes were just a tiny bit sharper than most and able to see into darkened spaces and nightfall.

Kupela changed his mind within minutes into his first day of work. Chilamba still remembered the day when both boys were lowered into the shaft with only a rope tied around their waists. They dropped only thirty feet when he looked overhead at the circular opening of daylight and saw his brother's struggling form. His brother was twisting and yanking frantically at their rope in a panic. Kupela shrieked high pitched wails echoing throughout the mine -- cursing and screaming the laborers were all crazy to work in wormholes. 

"Let me up! Let me up!" He screamed. "I can't breathe!" Chilamba feared his brother would loosen his rope and fall into the abyss. He quickly scaled up the rope and gripped his hyperventilating brother. Below the workers catcalled and shouted his brother screamed like a newborn baby and would bring them all bad luck and earthquakes. 

Kupela hated the mines from that day onward and returned to school vowing to study hard and become a teacher or doctor. He rose early and stayed up late reading, writing, memorizing and calculating numbers. He would do anything to keep from going back, he told Chilamba.


End file.
